Joint Statement by
Participants in Equal Parents' Week

We recognize that there are serious breakdowns in our justice system which
have adversely affected unmarried parents and their children for decades.
Some of the most fundamental and prevalent of these breakdowns are: failure
of courts to thoroughly and objectively scrutinize custody issues, resulting
in custody determinations which are detrimental to children; lack of court
intervention to eliminate and prevent obstruction of co-parenting of and
access to children; legislation and enforcement of child support laws which
result in failure to require some parents to support their children, while
requiring other parents to pay levels of child support which are unaffordable.
These and related problems originate from a misperception which prevails
throughout society and our justice system: unmarried parents are
not given equal status as parents.

These are not partisan or political issues. We advocate equity and equality
of umarried parents in furtherance of a genuine focus on the needs and
rights of children and in recognition of this fundamental truth:
issues that adversely affect a parent's ability to raise and nurture their
children adversely affect children. Society's perception of unmarried parents
and their roles must change to realize the needs of children cannot be
fully and adequately met unless unmarried parents share equal rights and
responsibility in raising their children. We promote the right of children
to continue to receive the same access to both parents that is acknowledged
and sanctioned in families with married parents, recognizing that a divorced
family is still a family, and that family values often cannot survive when
broken families disintegrate from the loss of a parent and perpetuation
of parental irresponsibility and abuse.

There are numerous and complex issues which are generated by these breakdowns
in our justice system. While each organization joining in this event focuses
on certain issues, our focuses address a common objective: eliminating
barriers and inequities in our justice system which deprive unmarried parents
and their children of the civil rights that protect them individually and
their right to exist and function as a family.

The goal of this important event is to gain public recognition of these
urgent social issues, gain public support for critically needed reform,
and, most importantly, to call attention to the reason why our system must
be reformed: our love for our children, and the desparate need of our children
to have both parents meaningfully involved in their lives.